Step 2 · Where they come from
Why place matters
In Europe we talk about terroir: the idea that a place shapes what you taste in the glass. In China the same idea applies, but for different reasons depending on the drink.
Wine. Climate is everything. In Ningxia and Xinjiang summers are hot and dry and winters are very cold, so in many northern vineyards growers bury the vines in late autumn to protect them from the frost. In Yunnan, altitude does the work instead.
Baijiu. Here place lives in the microbes. Baijiu ferments for weeks in pits or jars, and the yeasts and bacteria of each place, in the air, in the water and in old fermentation pits, shape its aroma. This is why the great distilleries say their baijiu cannot be made anywhere else.
Rice wine. Water and tradition. Shaoxing wine is linked to the water of Jian Lake (鉴湖), and to centuries of local know-how.
Beer. Mostly a matter of style and history: Qingdao's brewery was founded by Europeans in 1903, and the city still drinks beer like nowhere else in China.